Finishing and Editing

Wow, so you've written a novel. Or a complete manuscript? Even better!

From here, the really important things to consider are:

Is your plot complete?

Do all your subplots advance the mail plot or character?

Are you happy with the ending? If not, then brainstorm it and do a rewrite.

Print the manuscript at least five times and give it to some honest friends to read. Pick people who you trust will give you good feedback.

Walk away from your manuscript for at least a week. Give your head a break!

Another extremely important part of writing a novel, and hopefully the final part is editing. (Although I do always wonder if it is really over yet?) It is recommended that you edit at least four times – or even more until the manuscript is polished, clear, and concise.

Now if you read my books you will still see errors. My point is that it's a great idea to get several people to read your manuscript. Each person will see things the others haven't. Listen to what they have to say. Make the changes that are necessary. Beware though, don't let them influence your style of writing. You'll soon see your style as you write, that is yours and yours alone. And whatever you do - do not take the advice personally. I know that your manuscript is 'your baby', but they are giving feedback on your story - not on you.I wrote a blog post on this process - which some of the following is from: Revision and Editing, or Editing and Revision

So how do I do this without getting all lost and frustrated in the process? I plan. This is how it all fits together…

When I finish writing a novel, I put it down and I walk away. Before I put it down though, I hand the finished piece over to my Alpha-readers. Then I mentally walk away. My Alphas have a read of it, write me notes, and they meet with me for lunch or coffee to have a big lengthy chat about the book. They tell me if they hate a character, love a character, or if something in there is leaping out at them that just doesn’t fit or make sense. During this process, I’m sitting there, notebook in hand, or my dictaphone (depending on the Alpha) and I’m getting down everything that they are saying.My Alphas are not writers, and it is fairly unlikely that they ever will be. (Mind you, in saying that – I have just recently acquired a writing Alpha, but she is also a critique partner as well.) Bear in mind, that while all is this happening, I have actually mentally walked away from the book. All I am doing is getting someone else’s opinion on the book, and I’m recording it for future reference.

Stay away from the book for a decent period. I’m serious. This could be a week, or a month – however long it takes you to mentally ‘let go’. Then when you have had some time to think about everything else but the book, have a look at all your feedback you have acquired, and start thinking objectively. Usually this is the point where I start reading through it, and correcting any glaring errors that shouldn’t be there. I also like to tighten sentences and paragraphs around this time as well. This is a great time to incorporate some of the ideas that your Alphas have given you as well – if you haven’t already.

Lots of writers believe that you should ‘revise’ before you ‘edit’. Revising is when you are looking at the story arc, character arcs and motivation, depth, scenes, chapters, paragraphs, tension, pacing, etc, etc. You get the general gist. However, I work the other way around. I ‘edit’ the sentences and tighten as much as possible before I release to my Beta readers. I do this so that my Betas aren’t getting distracted by my little writing inconsistencies. I don’t think that’s fair on them, especially if they feel the need to try and correct it!

Feedback. Sometimes this feedback can be pretty hard to take. I have one Beta who is damn hard on me, but it makes me a better writer. The feedback she gives me would probably be soul destroying for a lot of people. She basically tells me that it’s rubbish, and she goes through the whole manuscript with a fine toothed comb and beats me up over it. The key to dealing with this is that I can’t take this sort of feedback personally. (Even though sometimes I do…) I trust her judgement though. At the end of each beating, she will give me her honest opinion. She will tell me whether or not it’s good, or it needs to serious work done to it to get it up to scratch. If she tells me that it’s good, then I know it’s good. It just needs further revision and editing. The woman is a perfectionist.Beta readers should be giving constructive criticism, in order to for you to significantly improve the book. At this point, I gather everything I have, all the feedback and research, and I go through it. This is where my revision stage really starts.

On A3 pieces of paper, I use coloured pens and a normal standard pencil. - I look at each significant character I know needs further work and I break them down. I analyse their individual motivations, their personalities, and whether or not they should probably die – or whether they have redeemed themselves enough in the book to live.- Each chapter is under scrutiny, on whether it is needed or not. I also write down each chapter as a heading on my piece of paper, and depending on what I am doing to the characters, I add in bits and pieces into the necessary future chapters to strengthen the storyline.In summary – I am looking at characters, flaws, emotional arcs, chapters, storyline, etc. Not only am I tightening, but I am also analysing closely, figuring out how I can give the characters more depth, more/less back story, motivation, and this in turn strengthens the plot.